Politicians and journalists, along with tens of thousands of listeners from across the nation, tuned in to hear the week's most pressing issues discussed.

Chairman Jonathan Dimbleby was joined by Hazel Blears, MP for Salford and Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, Ms Blears' Conservative Party Shadow in the House of Commons and Lord Razzall, Liberal Democrat spokesman for Trade and Industry in the House of Lords. The panel was completed by Professor Colin Blakemore, an eminent neurobiologist and former chief executive of Medical Research Council.

The programme, which involves panellists answering questions set on the night by the audience, was attended by a full house of more than 200 members of the local community, as well as staff, parents and students from the High School.

Questions asked live on air concerned, among other topical issues, changes to the taxation system and the recent teachers' strike, which had not affected the school itself.

After the programme had aired, the chairman and panellists, along with members of the crew and production team, were treated to a buffet meal prepared by members of the GCSE Catering group.

"This was a wonderful event," said Stuart Ash, Headteacher at the school. "Not only for the students and other members of the community, who will have seen a really enthralling and genuinely interesting political debate, but for the whole of Chapel-en-le-Frith. Events like this really put the town on the map.

"We've always prided ourselves on being a school with a strong community focus and evenings like this allow us to bring that community together under one roof. It was a great evening."

l Earlier, Jonathan Dimbleby had begun proceedings by discussing the thorny issue of how to pronounce the town's name. BBC researchers had identified three accepted ways of pronouncing 'Chapel-en-le-Frith'.

A poll of the audience taken after the show went off-air showed that a significant majority favoured Chapel-on-le-Frith as opposed to Chapel-en-le-Frith or Chapel-on-lee-Frith.

Unusually, for a programme involving politicians, this would seem to be one question given a straight answer!